On Saturday, June 29, Team India won their second mega-ICC title after defeating South Africa in the T20 World Cup 2024 grand final in Barbados. Remarkably, it took the Men in Blue 11 years to win a championship.
Nevertheless, superstar batsman Virat Kohli abruptly declared his resignation from the Twenty20 International format. In short order to say goodbye to the format from where he began his career, Captain Rohit Sharma, the newly crowned World champion, soon followed suit. It’s interesting to remember that when Sharma played for Team India in the first T20 World Cup in 2007, the team won. During the press conference held after the game, Rohit Sharma declared that he was leaving the format, but he will still be playing for India in the ODI and Test forms.
“This was also my final [T20I] match. It’s the perfect time to bid this format farewell. This has been so much fun every minute. Playing this format was how I began my career in India.
At the press conference following his World Cup victory, Rohit Sharma stated, “This is what I wanted, I wanted to win the cup.”
“I really wanted this. quite difficult to describe. I was feeling pretty strongly at the time. I had been waiting my entire life for this title. Happy that we did, at last, step across the line’, the Hitman said.
Virat Kohli, the standout batsman for India and player of the match, had already declared his retirement from the Twenty20 international format during the presentation ceremony. While doing so, he stated that the country is home to many rising stars and that this is the ideal time to offer them the opportunity to serve the country in the future by stepping away from the format. It was, then, the happy and somewhat depressing end of an era for the fans when both icons gave up on the format.
Hitman, a cricket player, has outstanding T20I records.
In relation to Rohit Sharma’s experience playing in T20 Internationals, the renowned opener holds the record for most runs scored by a batter to date. Sharma is notable for having scored 4,231 runs and appearing in 159 Team India games.
In T20Is, the damaging batter also holds the record for most hundreds (five tonnes). Remarkably, he ended his career on a high note—his final game marked his 50th victory as a captain.
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